Today, Perfect World Entertainment and Cryptic Studios announced Star Trek Online: Rise of Discovery is now available on PC, with console launch coming June 25. The latest update to the free-to-play MMORPG based on the iconic Star Trek universe continues the game’s crossover with the CBS All Access series Star Trek: Discovery.

Starting today, Star Trek Online players will have the opportunity to travel back in time and board the U.S.S. Buran, encountering Captain Gabriel Lorca (voiced by Jason Isaacs) and Commander Ellen Landry (voiced by Rekha Sharma) from the show. Captains can play through Rise of Discovery to uncover the startling chain of events that ultimately determined the fates of these compelling characters in the first season of Star Trek: Discovery. The update also introduces a brand new game features.

Launch trailer

Rise of Discovery to tell Lorca’s story

In the first season of Star Trek: Discovery, fans were introduced to Captain Gabriel Lorca and his Chief of Security, Commander Ellen Landry. However, very little was revealed about their collective past and what led them to assume command of the legendary U.S.S. Discovery. These questions will be answered in Rise of Discovery, which takes players to the decks of the U.S.S. Buran with Lorca and Landry just one month after the Battle at the Binary Stars. The Federation starship is on a mission to transport Klingon prisoners to a secure facility when it becomes the target of an incursion led by J’Ula, the matriarch of House Mo’Kai. A devastating turn of events leaves Captain Lorca as the sole survivor of the attack. After crash landing on a barren ice moon above Priors World, he must rely on his trusted commanding officer and Star Trek Online players to rescue him before he is apprehended by Klingon forces.

Lorca and Landry in Star Trek Online: Rise of Discovery

USS Buran in Star Trek Online: Rise of Discovery

Rise of Discovery features

These events take place across brand new missions featured in Rise of Discovery. A full list of game features introduced with today’s update includes:

Two New Featured Episodes – Captains hailing from every faction within Star Trek Online can participate in two brand new playable episodes which take place in the Star Trek: Discovery universe.

“The Plausibility of the Possible” – Players come to the aid of the U.S.S. Buran, led by Captain Gabriel Lorca and Commander Ellen Landry, as the Starfleet ship engages in battle with Klingon forces led by J’Ula of House Mo’Kai.

“Impossibility of Reason” – Star Trek Online players will answer an urgent distress call from the U.S.S. Buran that sends them on a dire mission with Landry to keep the ship’s captain alive on a frozen ice moon.

New Reputation – The game’s latest update introduces the new Tier 6 Reputation, “Discovery Legends,” which allows players to earn exciting new Discovery themed rewards. All of the Discovery Task Force Operations will now feature Advanced and Elite versions that have been converted to support this new reputation and pay out Discovery Legend Marks.

T6 Starship Scaling – Starting today, level restrictions have been removed for Tier 6 starships across all of the game’s platforms, including PC, Xbox One and PlayStation®4. For the first time in Star Trek Online history, players will be able to fly premium ships which scale to their individual character level. Additional details can be found on the Star Trek Online blog.

Priors World in Star Trek Online: Rise of Discovery

Qugh in Star Trek Online: Rise of Discovery

Cruise giveaway

To celebrate the release of Rise of Discovery, Star Trek Online is teaming up with Star Trek: The Cruise and SteelSeries on an exclusive giveaway for Star Trek fans! From now through May 26, players can visit the Star Trek Online blog to enter to win a cabin for two aboard Star Trek: The Cruise IV, a seven-day Caribbean voyage across the Atlantic with Star Trek royalty including William Shatner (Star Trek: The Original Series), Kate Mulgrew (Star Trek: Voyager), Jonathan Frakes (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Ethan Peck (Star Trek: Discovery) and more. The grand prize winner will also be granted every starship currently available in the C-Store of Star Trek Online on PC and a prize pack from SteelSeries.

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Michael Hall

A great actor, and potentially great character, almost entire undone by the unfathomable decision to make him his own MU-doppelganger, one of the worst creative felonies in the history of the Trek franchise. A game won’t change that, though I’m sure the voice work was a nice bonus for Jason Isaacs.

May 14, 2019 9:15 am

JonBuck

I remember one of the biggest complaints about Lorca before the reveal (on this very site) was that he wasn’t acting like a Starfleet Captain. The reveal gave us the reason. So I’m confused as to what fans actually want.

May 14, 2019 11:02 am

Just Another Salt Vampire

I think many people wanted a noble captain in the mold of all who came before. Instead they got a sinister sleaze ball. It was obviously a creative decision to shake things up from previous Trek incarnations.

May 14, 2019 12:30 pm

Tiger2

I don’t see it that negatively. I think they originally wanted someone who was really messed up by the effects of the war and started questioning how the Federation was fighting it. This was before they decided to make him a MU villain and someone just a little more off. I guess originally he was suppose to be a little more grey and not as black and white as he turned out to be after the reveal. For the record, I never had a huge problem with the reveal but I know others did. But it definitely explained why he acted that way.

But same time I would’ve liked to seen a Starfleet captain who just became more cynical and suffering from PTSD most likely.

May 14, 2019 12:40 pm

Michael Hall

That would have been infinitely preferable, yes. War does terrible things to people, and that Trek presents an optimistic view of the future wouldn’t change that at all. The scene between Lorca and Cornwall, where it’s revealed that the man’s PTSD has him sleeping with a phaser under his bed, was terrific. They should have stuck with that.

The reveal was terrible not only because it was a cop-out, but also because it was completely unbelievable. At the end of “Mirror, Mirror” Spock makes the point that it was easy to identify the TOS MU counterparts because they had no background to draw on to convincingly pretend to be civilized people. We’re supposed to believe that MU-Lorca found himself in a strange universe and was able to plot everything on his own, including infiltrating Starfleet, learning all the biographical details of his new colleagues to play his role convincingly, and utilize the spore drive successfully — all in order to get home? Yeah, sure.

May 14, 2019 1:21 pm

Tiger2

Well I can’t disagree with you much on your second paragraph, ALTHOUGH we do have to remember not everyone in the MU are sex crazed stark raving murdering lunatics either. In DS9 MU stories, they showed terrans who were just normal acting people like O’Brien and Jennifer Sisko along with others in the resistance. They came off as good people who just wanted their freedom. I know you’re not saying this, but so many people think of the MU as just the ‘opposite universe’ when its not that black and white. I think there are just as many normal civilized people in it like the PU, but they are the ones subjected by the empire.

But I do generally agree, in Archer, Lorca and Kirk’s time, terrans were a lot more cut throat because they were in charge and the entire society had become a kill or be killed mentality, at least in the military ranks. So I would have a hard time believing Lorca just fit right in (although he didn’t exactly lol) with decades of that conditioning, now that you mention it.

May 14, 2019 3:28 pm

Soren

Yeah and make Star Trek like 90% of sci fi – dumb as **** and full of conflict and strife. Way to go in destroying its unique selling point of trying to elevate the human spirit and give people hopeful messages.

May 14, 2019 2:22 pm

Afterburn

See that’s the thing: not all fans want the same thing.

May 14, 2019 12:55 pm

Mark Calcagno

Which is why writers shouldn’t listen to fans and write the story they want to make.

May 14, 2019 1:54 pm

Vulcan Soul

“So I’m confused as to what fans actually want.”

People wanted an anti-hero, an “alternative” Captain à la TNG’s Jellico, a gruffy military guy who was doing wrong things for the right reasons, not (as Mirror Lorca) doing the right things for the wrong reasons (such as mapping out the Klingon cloak, but not for winning the war but only for his own selfish advantage).

May 14, 2019 8:09 pm

Ernst Hauke Fischer

Before the reveal that he was from the MU, I speculated Lorca wanted to use time travel to undo the entire war. Basically recruit Burnham so she could go back in time to the Battle of the Binaries and then take a different path securing T’kuvma’s capture rather than killing him.
The reason he was acting so dickish would have been that he doesn’t care what happens in that timeline since he was planning to erase it anyway.
The theory was plausible for a long time (right up to Vaulting Ambition), the trip to the MU could have been an accidental detour rather than his destination.

May 19, 2019 4:40 am

Georgiou’s Sass.

Lorca being from the MU was not a creative felony in my eyes. The show, as I understand it, was always going to explore the Mirror Universe (and at a much earlier point in the first series) so I’m guessing the plan was always to have Lorca be from there. And if he wasn’t from the MU, we might never have had that incredible battle in Georgiou’s throne room.

As you can probably tell by my handle, I absolutely LIVE for Emperor Georgiou.

May 14, 2019 1:46 pm

Tiger2

No, it wasn’t. The show runners themselves said originally Lorca was just suppose to be another captain from PU, just with a darker past. THat’s what Fuller originally came up with. It was after Fuller left they decided to go with the MU angle and in fact rewrote episode 3 when he was first introduced to tie it in better. Although you are right the plan was always to explore the MU, and why they came up with making Lorca from the MU, to make that story more relevant as well.

May 14, 2019 3:12 pm

Vulcan Soul

Tiger2, I read the Isaacs interviews at the time and he would not have agreed to play just another Captain, however conflicted. He WANTED to play a bad guy, and he knew about the reveal from the beginning. Also Fuller wanted to go into the mirror universe from the 4th episode. So if they had planned something else for Lorca originally, it was abandoned at a very early stage.

May 14, 2019 8:13 pm

Tiger2

Yes correct. It wasn’t until Fuller left the show and they decided on the change before they hired Issacs. And remember he actually got cast pretty late when they were already shooting the pilot so that could’ve been another reason, they were rewriting the role and figuring out how long he would be around before they offered it to him.

May 15, 2019 8:20 pm

A34

Emperor Georgiou rocks. I can’t wait to see her show.

May 15, 2019 10:47 am

Vulcan Soul

“Creative felony” indeed! I call it character assassination. For once we agree!

May 14, 2019 8:07 pm

Joe

Does this take place before or after prime Lorca and mirror Lorca switch places?

May 14, 2019 10:17 am

Van Banoovong

I’m guessing before with the first one and the switch happened in the second one.

This strikes me as “gatekeeping”. Correct me if I’m wrong but that’s not allowed here?

May 15, 2019 6:09 am

Mark Calcagno

Oh please, good Mr. Burnette! Tell us what we ALL want! I’m trying to make up my mind, but I can’t because you haven’t told me what I should think yet!

Get over yourself…

May 15, 2019 6:56 am

A34

You’re joking right?

May 15, 2019 10:54 am

Tiger2

With Discovery going to the 32nd century I guess it look like they won’t be finding prime Lorca after all. One of the things that made season 1 memorable was Jason Isaacs performance. He was really good with the time he had.

May 14, 2019 11:47 am

Corinthian7

There’s still potential for Prime Lorca to show up in Section 31, it’s possible he has history with Emperor Georgiou.

May 14, 2019 1:45 pm

Tiger2

Yeah true. And of course with so many shows being planned for the future (and this being Star Trek), basically anyone can show up again in some form. If that show actually does happen, it would be fun to reveal that PU Lorca and MU Georgiou has some kind of history, but now must work together or something.

May 14, 2019 3:37 pm

Corinthian7

@Tiger2 Also to bring Lorca back they have to at least address the Mirror Universe and quite possibly return there and it’s difficult to keep doing that in shows set before TOS. The secretive nature of Section 31 and the fact they will presumably have a leading operative who comes from that realm gives them a lot more leeway in this regard plus it wouldn’t be too much of a leap to manufacture a history between the Emperor Georgiou and Prime Lorca. Heck, even if they haven’t previously met there’d be plenty of reason for conflict between those two.

May 15, 2019 2:36 pm

Vulcan Soul

They could still partially vindicate the character by showing Prime Lorca being that morally conflicted captain who does the wrong things for the right reasons – such as working with Section 31 for the greater good (or so he thinks).

May 14, 2019 8:15 pm

Corinthian7

Exactly VS, it’s reasonable to to assume he’d be deeply affected by his time on the other side so there’d be perfect justification for giving us the nuanced darker take on a more morally ambiguous Starfleet Captain that many of us had hoped we were going to get when the character was first introduced.

May 15, 2019 2:39 pm

VoR

The ships are fun, but the ground-combat and exploration parts of the game are pretty terrible most of the time.

May 14, 2019 1:14 pm

MysticalDigtial

As a game is it a square peg mashed into a round hole, held there by the enormous weight of Trek fandom. If there was any other mass market appeal Trek game going, STO would slowly fade away.

May 14, 2019 3:03 pm

A34

I tried to play it on the PS4. I had to stop because it was way too buggy. It felt like a game from the early 2000’s.

May 15, 2019 11:23 am

Calastir

We shoot in peace, come to kill to protect the Federation or something.

May 14, 2019 9:49 pm

Van Banoovong

Just played the Rise of Discovery and it was great. I’m guessing the switch between the real and Mirror Lorca occurred during the second episode Impossibility of Reason when the Klingon ships got his ship in multiple tractor beams.

May 15, 2019 3:03 am

Gaming Guy

So, I played those Star Trek Online episodes yesterday when they became available. NO spoilers, just saying: DISAPPOINTING.

This was a “Prime” opportunity to show what happened between the Prime Lorca and MU Lorca swap. The writing on these game episodes was really poor.

May 15, 2019 8:46 am

Nice Gunther

I don’t understand why the studio is so wedded to the Michael Burnham character if she needs to be supported by strong male characters/actors. Captain Lorca was a potentially classic Star Trek character and could have rejuvenated the franchise. Captain Pike on board the new Enterprise could have rivaled the Original Series. The scenes of him on the Enterprise bridge just hinted at what could have been. What an utter waste. In series three I have no doubt the otherwise totally forgettable Discovery crew will have a passable Kirk to support them, but I won’t be watching. I have no idea what they’re doing. Why not make a prequel of TOS featuring the adventures of Pike? And why make Spock look as though he had joined the Beatles somewhere between Sgt Pepper and Abbey Road?

May 15, 2019 12:30 pm

JonBuck

After playing the missions I think we actually see Prime Lorca in the first one, Mirror Lorca in the second. But it’s actually very subtle. He doesn’t become cartoonishly evil. That fits with his character in the series.

May 15, 2019 2:17 pm

Vantheman77

That’s what I’m thinking here with the Lorca switches.

May 15, 2019 8:32 pm

Jeff

Does this take place before or after prime Lorca and mirror Lorca switch places?